Camouflage materials have long been employed to conceal objects, personnel, and equipment in various terrains from visual detection. Generally, such camouflage materials are drapable sheets or net structures of varying size and shape and are solid color or dyed or printed in multiple color patterns to simulate the coloration of the terrain in which the camouflage is used, e.g., patterns of black, brown, and green, in combination. The camouflage material is supported or draped over and around the objects or equipment to be concealed, and multiple sections of the same or other shapes may be suitably joined at their edges to provide the particular size needed to cover the objects or equipment to be concealed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,069,796; 4,323,605; and 4,375,488 disclose camouflage materials consisting of flexible sheets of two dimension in which a pattern of cuts is made to provide holes and flaps simulating pieces of variously colored foliage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,863 discloses a laminated camouflage sheet composed of a blown low density polyethylene layer, a vaporized metal layer, an adhesion film, and a woven cloth layer. The blown layer is die cut by stamping apparatus to form arcuate slits which form tongues under action of internal stresses to curl outwardly from the plane of the camouflage sheet.
Camouflage material is also known to be made of loosely woven synthetic polymeric strips joined together by a network of metal fasteners and hooks.
Camouflage materials which are used in military operations include a composite camouflage systems having a large mesh support net to which a camouflage-colored, slit fabric sheet processed with pattern incising is attached by means of metal rings, referred to as hog rings. This type camouflage system is relatively heavy in weight and difficult for personnel to handle in field operations. Present military camouflage net systems of the type employing large mesh nets and metal rings are not satisfactory for use with certain equipment, such as rotary and fixed wing aircraft, because a large mesh material easily snags on aircraft parts, such as rotor blades, weapons, antennas, and the like during installation and removal. In addition, metal rings and fasteners, such as the hob rings, can cause considerable damage to the equipment being concealed, such as abrasion of wind screen surfaces, control linkages, and engine components. Because of their heavy weight, such camouflage systems require extensive manpower to be located over and removed from the aircraft.
There is, therefore a need for an acceptable lightweight camouflage net system which may be employed by minimum personnel to cover and conceal large military equipment, such as aircraft, which may be readily located over and removed from the equipment without snagging, and which may be easily maintained, stored, and transported to various geographical locations in the equipment to be concealed. Camouflage net systems for military use also are required to possess good resistance to weathering, and be usable under varying temperature conditions.